Greetings,
so at last I have some pics of my flyrant and some more of my growing hive fleet. I baptized it Nidhoeggr after the dragon from norse mythology who feeds on the dead and the roots of the world tree.
So first off, the Flyrant:
And a pic from a game against the imperial guard where his enormous wing span becomes apparent: this fellow is really huge, hiding impossible.
And some more photos from from my Trygon and Trygon Prime I haven't shown yet:
The Trygon Prime smashing some tanks:
Venomthropes drawn to the front for the kill:
And finally the Flyrant and some Ymgarl genestealer fighting the elite of the Imperium: Grand Marshal Hermann and his terminator guard:
That's it for the moment. When I have more to show you'll find it here.
November 30, 2010
October 18, 2010
We have returned (and some wip pics)
Hey all!
After taking a rather long break from WH40k and an even longer time from blogging at least I am going to post again here! So without further boring you with why taking a break, I want to share with you my current project!
Building/converting a hive tyrant into a "flyrant" by adding a pair of balrog wings.
After taking a rather long break from WH40k and an even longer time from blogging at least I am going to post again here! So without further boring you with why taking a break, I want to share with you my current project!
Building/converting a hive tyrant into a "flyrant" by adding a pair of balrog wings.
As you can see this fellow gets a pretty impressive wing span...
I didn't like the way the original model holds its tail and so I thought it a great idea to re-pose it....and after messing up with modelling a completely new one with green stuff and having cut off the snappy thing at the end of the tail I tried to bent the original tail. To my surpise it didn't break and so Mr Tyrant came to his new tail with the carnifex end-piece.
So that's it for tonight. As I make progress in converting and painting I will post it here! So hopefully we get back some of our old followers!
Cheers,
Managarm
April 25, 2010
Finished Avatar of Khaine
Hi guys,
hereby I proudly present my first ever painted Forgeworld model. It really was a lot more work than I had expected, but I´m pleased with the outcome on the model. The last month (one month since the last post ... wow, time goes by fast) I finished the sword and the tabard. I painted the sword in the same way as the Avatars body with reverse highlighting from yellow to black. For the tabard I applied a blue color starting from Space Wolves Grey, Enchanted Blue and Regal Blue. After one big wash with Asurmen Blue the blue color looked really nice and I did my first try on the Avatar rune - what I really learned then was that my free hand skills are not that special but I start to get better (compared to the much bigger rune on the Autarchs jetbike I all went a lot faster and I hadn´t do that much of corrections after the first coat of yellow paint (thank god for GWs foundation yellow).
So here you see the finished Avatar. I will try to make some better pictures the next days and try my luck at Cool Mini Or Not.
Next up on my ToDo List is the really nice model of PrinceYriel.
hereby I proudly present my first ever painted Forgeworld model. It really was a lot more work than I had expected, but I´m pleased with the outcome on the model. The last month (one month since the last post ... wow, time goes by fast) I finished the sword and the tabard. I painted the sword in the same way as the Avatars body with reverse highlighting from yellow to black. For the tabard I applied a blue color starting from Space Wolves Grey, Enchanted Blue and Regal Blue. After one big wash with Asurmen Blue the blue color looked really nice and I did my first try on the Avatar rune - what I really learned then was that my free hand skills are not that special but I start to get better (compared to the much bigger rune on the Autarchs jetbike I all went a lot faster and I hadn´t do that much of corrections after the first coat of yellow paint (thank god for GWs foundation yellow).
So here you see the finished Avatar. I will try to make some better pictures the next days and try my luck at Cool Mini Or Not.
Next up on my ToDo List is the really nice model of PrinceYriel.
The Avatar of Kaela Mensha Khaine
And what really excites me today ..... PICS OF THE NEW FIRE PRISM ! Have to get two of them. They look really different compared to the old one but I kinda like the new look. Gives the cannon more of a "Bright Lance with fancy diamonds" feeling. The new Night Spinner also looks really nice, but I would like to see the rules on this one, before I can make my last judgement on it. Hopefully you can magnetize / pin the two cannons easily and change between the two setups...
March 30, 2010
FW Avatar of Khaine painting log - Part 2
Hi guys,
slow but steady I start to make progress on the Avatar. Last week I finished the lava parts on the models body and started to paint its head and armour parts. To stay true to my Alaitoc Eldar I tried to keep the armour parts in blue tones with Regal Blue as the main color and with light accents of Enchanted Blue. For his fancy headgear I set for a stronger contrast and used mixes of Space Wolves Grey and Regal Blue. They still look quite empty to me, but really have no clue what to add on them to make them look less flat.
At the moment I´m painting his armoured hand with the biiiigg sword and I started the painfull work of finishing is thousand gems.
For the other two missing part I really am looking desperatly for some major inspiration - I don´t think my free hand skills will allow me to paint a nice Eldar rune on his tabard and for his 70s hair no distinct colour scheme comes to my mind.
I´d be very thankful for any comments or suggestons on these two parts...
March 11, 2010
A tale of fail: Tau vs. Daemons
Greetings,
initially Trotzki and me just had in mind to play one of our usual weekly games. We met after work, Trotzki had his daemons and I was up playing tau again, as my tyranids are not ready for more than "test-games". We decided to play cities of death again (imo the best addition to 40k so far). We set up a board with an abandoned fortification in the center consisting of our three bastions and aegis lines, surrounded by some buildings and containers and a street. The mission would be to secure the own building and attack the one the enemy had declared to be his own (I never can recall how the missions are called correctly). In hindsight we chose absolutely pointless stratagems. I fortified my home building and would get feel no pain additionally. Trotzki had the two stratagems where he would get a 5+ cover save in the open due to smoke grenades (amazing when you have a 5+ invul save as well...) and wrecking gear to tear down buildings.
I lost the first roll.off and had to set up first. I placed my broadsides and the kroot in the fortified building the railhead and the two deathrains and the stealth suits behind him next to the street. The ionhead and two fireknives on the other side. I wanted to create some kind of two-pronged assault on his building on the opposite site of the board. I kept both my warfishes and the command fireknife team in reserve.
On my first turn I just moved towards his objective and as no daemons were on the field yet, no shooting occured. Trotzki was lucky to get his designated first wave and so a greater daemon of tzeentch, 15 daemonettes, a tzeentch herald and a daemon prince dedicated to tzeentch as well materialized in real-space. But the warp was treacherous and the daemon prince mishapped to the other end of the board. Maybe a sign of things to come.
Things like the greater daemon of tzeentch "el poldo diablo" shooting on my fireknives.
Nothing spectacular, the bolt of tzeentch just roasted one shield drone leaving the suits unharmed. But who would have thought that this particular shield drone was the shas'ui's heirloom which he favoured more than his XV8 suit? Every evening he spent his free time with lovingly cleaning and optimizing it while his buddies went out to meet the girls or getting involved in a good old brawl in the local tavern. And now that. A warp-spawned monstrosity hurled a shiny bolt at him and in a desperate hover-jump his drone finally fulfilled its duty and saved him (and his squad-mate) from being turned to slimey goo. That was too much for one day. With a cry of desparation on his lips the shas'ui jumped for the burning remains of his once beloved drone, grabbed them under his battle suits arms and turned tail, running home!
That seemed to be the signal for a game of mutual abysmal dice rolling.
On Trotzki's second turn no reserves arrived, not a single unit. Oh lucky me. Don't blame me that I don't remember every normal detail of that game, I just want to share the highlights. On my turn the command team of three fire knives showed up and under the combined firepower of them, the ionhead and 6 firewarriors and the warfish el poldo diablo was sent back to the warp. Can you imagine what happened on Trotzki's turn with the command team? I guess you know what this is all about. Right, the shield drones were destroyed. And what do elite firewarriors do when that happens? Right again. They cut and run, turn tail, flee. To make long things short, the deathrains lost their single drone as well, failed their morale check and fled. But hey! I learned from the other two squads and I had moved them more to the center of the board. So when they fled 8" to my table edge they ended their run merely 1" from it! And as exceptions some kind of proof the rules, they passed their morale check to regroup. Hah!
Next remarkable thing was the soulgrinder. He didn't do much damage the round he appeared. And I was of good spirit as he materialized right infront of two BS4 twin-linked railguns and railhead lurking on his side.
The broadsides hit but didn't penetrate and the railhead missed with a 1. Over the remaining course of the game I just managed to immobilize him and destroy his mawcannon. It's not too spectacular but it matched the feeling of the game.
Trotzki had bad luck with his last daemonettes which didn't show up until turn 5, where they mishapped and were sent back to warp. On turn 6 they appeared again, scattered, mishapped and were claimed by the warp.
In the end I didn't manage to get anything to Trotzki's building, the last surviving deathrain was annihilated by the daemon prince, who later smashed the railhead.
Trotzki had the damaged soulgrinder with one foot/claw in my building and nothing to claim his home base. So the only acceptable outcame was a draw.
I am definitely not complaining about this poor dice rolling as it was bad luck on both sides and wasn't one-sided, what would have caused a rather disappointing if not annoying game for one of us. So sometimes it was that ridiculous it even was starting to get funny again.
I want to end with a citation from the "Imperial Infantrymen's uplifting Primer" concerning cowardly battlesuits:
initially Trotzki and me just had in mind to play one of our usual weekly games. We met after work, Trotzki had his daemons and I was up playing tau again, as my tyranids are not ready for more than "test-games". We decided to play cities of death again (imo the best addition to 40k so far). We set up a board with an abandoned fortification in the center consisting of our three bastions and aegis lines, surrounded by some buildings and containers and a street. The mission would be to secure the own building and attack the one the enemy had declared to be his own (I never can recall how the missions are called correctly). In hindsight we chose absolutely pointless stratagems. I fortified my home building and would get feel no pain additionally. Trotzki had the two stratagems where he would get a 5+ cover save in the open due to smoke grenades (amazing when you have a 5+ invul save as well...) and wrecking gear to tear down buildings.
I lost the first roll.off and had to set up first. I placed my broadsides and the kroot in the fortified building the railhead and the two deathrains and the stealth suits behind him next to the street. The ionhead and two fireknives on the other side. I wanted to create some kind of two-pronged assault on his building on the opposite site of the board. I kept both my warfishes and the command fireknife team in reserve.
On my first turn I just moved towards his objective and as no daemons were on the field yet, no shooting occured. Trotzki was lucky to get his designated first wave and so a greater daemon of tzeentch, 15 daemonettes, a tzeentch herald and a daemon prince dedicated to tzeentch as well materialized in real-space. But the warp was treacherous and the daemon prince mishapped to the other end of the board. Maybe a sign of things to come.
Things like the greater daemon of tzeentch "el poldo diablo" shooting on my fireknives.
Nothing spectacular, the bolt of tzeentch just roasted one shield drone leaving the suits unharmed. But who would have thought that this particular shield drone was the shas'ui's heirloom which he favoured more than his XV8 suit? Every evening he spent his free time with lovingly cleaning and optimizing it while his buddies went out to meet the girls or getting involved in a good old brawl in the local tavern. And now that. A warp-spawned monstrosity hurled a shiny bolt at him and in a desperate hover-jump his drone finally fulfilled its duty and saved him (and his squad-mate) from being turned to slimey goo. That was too much for one day. With a cry of desparation on his lips the shas'ui jumped for the burning remains of his once beloved drone, grabbed them under his battle suits arms and turned tail, running home!
That seemed to be the signal for a game of mutual abysmal dice rolling.
On Trotzki's second turn no reserves arrived, not a single unit. Oh lucky me. Don't blame me that I don't remember every normal detail of that game, I just want to share the highlights. On my turn the command team of three fire knives showed up and under the combined firepower of them, the ionhead and 6 firewarriors and the warfish el poldo diablo was sent back to the warp. Can you imagine what happened on Trotzki's turn with the command team? I guess you know what this is all about. Right, the shield drones were destroyed. And what do elite firewarriors do when that happens? Right again. They cut and run, turn tail, flee. To make long things short, the deathrains lost their single drone as well, failed their morale check and fled. But hey! I learned from the other two squads and I had moved them more to the center of the board. So when they fled 8" to my table edge they ended their run merely 1" from it! And as exceptions some kind of proof the rules, they passed their morale check to regroup. Hah!
Next remarkable thing was the soulgrinder. He didn't do much damage the round he appeared. And I was of good spirit as he materialized right infront of two BS4 twin-linked railguns and railhead lurking on his side.
The broadsides hit but didn't penetrate and the railhead missed with a 1. Over the remaining course of the game I just managed to immobilize him and destroy his mawcannon. It's not too spectacular but it matched the feeling of the game.
Trotzki had bad luck with his last daemonettes which didn't show up until turn 5, where they mishapped and were sent back to warp. On turn 6 they appeared again, scattered, mishapped and were claimed by the warp.
In the end I didn't manage to get anything to Trotzki's building, the last surviving deathrain was annihilated by the daemon prince, who later smashed the railhead.
Trotzki had the damaged soulgrinder with one foot/claw in my building and nothing to claim his home base. So the only acceptable outcame was a draw.
I am definitely not complaining about this poor dice rolling as it was bad luck on both sides and wasn't one-sided, what would have caused a rather disappointing if not annoying game for one of us. So sometimes it was that ridiculous it even was starting to get funny again.
I want to end with a citation from the "Imperial Infantrymen's uplifting Primer" concerning cowardly battlesuits:
"There are several types of tau 'Battlesuits' (as they
are laughably known), all equally ineffective. Battlesuits
are given to warriors who are even more
cowardly than their compatriots, and who refuse to
enter combat without maximum protection.
Feckless cowards! The tau encased in the cumbersome,
brittle arnour are usually inexperienced and
untrained.
Battlesuits are such easy targets that they
might as well have a bull's eye painted on them.
But it should be put on the back because they will,
in all likelihood, run away at the first sighting of a
well-armed and determined Imperial Guardsman!"
are laughably known), all equally ineffective. Battlesuits
are given to warriors who are even more
cowardly than their compatriots, and who refuse to
enter combat without maximum protection.
Feckless cowards! The tau encased in the cumbersome,
brittle arnour are usually inexperienced and
untrained.
Battlesuits are such easy targets that they
might as well have a bull's eye painted on them.
But it should be put on the back because they will,
in all likelihood, run away at the first sighting of a
well-armed and determined Imperial Guardsman!"
Did you experience something similar or have you had games like this where all and everything seems to fail?
March 6, 2010
Finished War Walker squadron and start of my FW Avatar of Khaine painting log
Hi guys,
as you might remember from my last post I started painting my Alaitoc War Walkers and finally was able to finish them this week. Two are equipped with scatter lasers and one with missile launchers. I still have two scatter lasers lying around to equip them all the same, but I first like to try some mixing - some test games will show if 24 shots with the scatter lasers win over the higher utility you get through the added krak and plasma missiles. So here are the pics of the finished squadron :
Alaitoc Scout Squadron Shadowspear
After finshing my War Walkers I made the oath to my Space Elves to finally paint the FW Avatar of Khaine that has been lying around my painting desk for over 18 months now - taunting me with his details and frightening me with spoiling this beautiful model with the strokes of my brushes. About a year ago I already did start painting him, but quickly found out that its hard to do such a model justice. I primed him black and started highlighting the model with brighter colors starting from a 1:1 mixture of scab red with chaos black and ending at a 1:1 mixture of sunburst yellow with skull wite. Unfortunatly the resulting painted leg looked very dull and dark to me and didn´t really met the picture I had in mind for the Avatar (Sadly I didn´t take any pictures of it).
Some months ago I painted a squad of Fire Dragons with reverse highlighting. There I primed the models white and painted them in ever darker tones of red. I really was pleased with the outcome on these models, so I tried the same approach on the same leg of the Avatar after priming him white again. I started with the whole leg painted in golden yellow and after that started highlighting with darker shades of blazing orange, blood red, red gore, scab red and at the end chaos black. This time I´m really pleased with the brightness of the colors and I will try to finsish the Avatars lava parts with this technique. So here is the pic of my second try on his leg :
So what do you think - anyone also had similar bad experiences with highlighting from black to brighter colors ?
January 30, 2010
Quick and dirty: 6 easy steps to paint gaunts
Greetings,
I thought I'd share how I paint my gaunts/gants, as I made some pics during I painted my last 3 termagants. As I mentioned before, I wanted to get the huge amounts of gaunts painted as quick as possible but thereby not compromising the quality of the paintjob too much.
So here's how I do it:
1.) Assembly of the model, cleaning of mold lines, obviously. After that I glue on some stones or rubble onto the base and cover it completely with PVA glue. Afterwards I prime with ArmyPainter's "skeleton bone" primer. But you can use a white primer and paint the whole model with bleached bone. But by using bone primer I spare one step.
As a sidenote on primers from ArmyPainter: you have to shake them really well (I mean several minutes!), heat it up a bit by holding it into hot water. And after priming hold the can upside down and spray until no colour comes out to clean the nozzle. I didn't do that with my first cans and the nozzles always got clogged with dried colour before the can was half-empty.
2.) I paint the carapace with knarloc green and the base with khemri brown (foundation colour)
4.) Afterwards I wash the whole model (not the base) with a lightly thinned mix of devlan mud and water (about 3 parts devlan mud and 1 part water)
5.) Usually I leave that to dry over night, but I think an hour should be enough as well. Then I paint the edges of the carapace with terracotta with uneven brush strokes.
6.) The last step is to glue some static grass onto the base and give the carapace an even coat with 'ardcoat for a glossy finish. Some thinned white on the teeth and the magazine of the weapon give some additional highlights.
That's it. Quick and not too dirty.
January 27, 2010
Some musings on the new Tyranids and freshly painted Eldar
Hi guys,
when checking any of the "big" W40k community forums at the moment you can´t really come around big discussion on the pros and cons of the new Tyranid Codex. With most of the rumored rules being known before the Codex has hit the shelfs, there was already a big crowd of long time players seeing the end of the world coming because the almighty Carnifex has fallen in the pit of overcostedness, while many others really anticipated the really "fresh" feeling the new list has in comparison to the 4th edition codex with its focus on Devourer-TMCs.
From the test games I had against the tyranids I also like to add my 10 cents to this discussion: From the point of an Eldar player the codex really feels like a new experience to play against - big horde armies are a real problem for Eldar players and so I really feared to be bogged down by a giant mass of screeching bugs. Interestingly the test game felt quite different - sure a horde list can also be viable, but the list really gives you targets from every category. Not only you have to be aware of small bugs and TMC, but you also need a different appoach to kill big units of multiwound Warriors. Eldar can muster quite a big number of S6 weapons (War Walker, Warp Spiders) and these really are more efficient than one would think when used against Warriors but also against T6 monsters. In the test game a unit of Pathfinders also really suprised me with laying down 4 wounds on an Trygon , due to lucky rolling on my side. The small ones will be the job for units of Dire Avengers but here Eldar players really have to be carefull not to be overrun by big units of Hormaguants, which have a high I (Aspect warriors beware !) and lots of attacks for low points. Together with several possibilities to add some S8 weapons Eldar should be able to at least weaken or kill some of the big beasties before they hit the line.
There I think Eldar will really start to struggle : With one exception (the Reroll-It Seer Council of You-Can´t-Kill-Me) most Eldar units are really fragile and depend on doing a lot of damage before the enemy retaliates. I think lash whips will be the bane of units like Banshees and Harlequins. Damaging monstrous creatures worked quite well, in the test game but mostly through initating multiple combats together with weaker units (Tervigons together with Gaunts for example) - hitting just the little ones really can give the big one more fearless-wounds than he can handle. Here the Seer Council also has the really big advantage of just needing a 2+ to wound even the mightiest of creatures, which will further increase the use of big Warlock units with a Farseer. I wasn´t able to test Harlequins until now but they should also be quite efficient against non-lash whip TMCs but will be overwhelmed by Warriors or Gaunts. The Wraithlord proved to be quite efficient with its 2 S8 weapons and the two flamers when things get personal. His big problem will be the amount of poisonous units in the army - while in the test game he died to a Carnifex, so I can´t really comment on this but I don´t think he will win any combat against Toxin Sac carrying things (almost everything is able to do this in the Codex) .
So much on my opinions on Eldar against the new Tyranid Codex. And because my New Years pledge was to first paint all my Eldar stuff lying around before painting anything new I also started to again take up the banner of proud craftworld Alaitoc and painted some models again. Here you see the first of my squadron of scatter laser War Walkers :
I also painted the limited edition Wraithbone Singer (will be used as Farseer - hopefully GW adds some rules in the next Eldar codex for this guy) I still had lying around :
I really like the dynamic pose of this model and the picture just does it no justice. To finish my Eldar to-do-list I still have to paint 2 War Walker, Prince Yriel and my FW Avatar (yikes). So still a lot to do before new stuff comes to town ....
I will also write some word on my opinion on Chaos Daemons against the new Tyranids the next days.
Labels:
Eldar,
Opinions and Musings,
Painting
January 24, 2010
Meet and greet: Newly spawned Tyranids
After all of the playtesting and actual playing with the new 'nids, let me return to the hobby part. Over the last weeks I finished some more bugs for my growing, but yet nameless hive fleet (more to all the names flowing around my head later).
First of all, the little critters are now under the unrelenting will of the hive mind, relayed by the powerful hive tyrant:
And of course a Tyrant is such a fragile existence, he needs some company for his protection: One tyrant guard is finished as well
As you can see I equipped him with a set of scything talons instead of the bonesword/lashwhip combo. The one and only reason for it being that I absolutely dislike the way how the bonesword is modelled! I'm not getting warm with the idea, a creature like this wields a real sword, with hilt and pommel... So I gave him the, in my eyes, way more cooler looking talons from the monstrous creature sprue. Rules-wise the other combo is better and so Trotzki mentioned he wouldn't have any objections against it if I fielded him with these biomorphs.
For further control via synapse and for serious anti-tank firepower, one of three zoanthropes is finished:
And as I was lucky to get a box of space hulk, I thought I needed to paint the broodlord. This mini is soo nice compared to the metal one and partly justifies to purchase space hulk just because of this model.
And of course he needs some buddies for the next thrashing in your neighborhood:
Finally I broke of the crushing claws of the carnifex and replaced them with another pair of scything talons. 25 points for d3 attacks more are simply not worth it...
First of all, the little critters are now under the unrelenting will of the hive mind, relayed by the powerful hive tyrant:
For further control via synapse and for serious anti-tank firepower, one of three zoanthropes is finished:
And as I was lucky to get a box of space hulk, I thought I needed to paint the broodlord. This mini is soo nice compared to the metal one and partly justifies to purchase space hulk just because of this model.
And of course he needs some buddies for the next thrashing in your neighborhood:
Finally I broke of the crushing claws of the carnifex and replaced them with another pair of scything talons. 25 points for d3 attacks more are simply not worth it...
Ok that's it for the moment with new models. Currently I am working on ever more termagants, the second tyrant guard and it itchs me to get started with the trygon I bought last week.
January 15, 2010
Tyranids: Test-games
So with the codex hitting the shelves tomorrow, I want to recapitulate the last games I had with the new tyranids and I thought, I'd share my experiences.
The first game was against space wolves and my 1750 points list looked something like this (I lost the paper where I wrote it down so just a mere summary):
Hive Tyrant
- venom cannon
- bonesword and lashwhip
- tactical insight
- 2 guards
2 zoanthropes
2 hive guards
3 warriors
- 2 pairs of scything talons
3 warriors
- rending claws
3 warriors
- deathspitters
2x15 termagaunts, no upgrades
20 hormagaunts
- adrenaline glands
10 genestealers with 1 broodlord
trygon alpha
mawloc
We played with 4 objectives, deployment dawn of war. I deployed the tyrant, all termagaunts and the mawloc, the hormagaunts would outflank (tactical insight) as would the genestealers.
So I won't go into detail of the game, I rather tell you how the units performed.
The Tyrant: I am not sure about him. He isn't particularly good but he isn't bad either. He soaks a bit of firepower and can do something with the venom cannon. But he is slow and in this game he didn't reach close combat.
At this point I considered to take him only with close combat weapons and let him run.
Zoanthropes: Funny, are considered a great thread and therefore are taken down in no-time. But their 3++ save is really annoying for the opponent, it took 4 tl-lascannons and a lot of small arms fire to kill them. I think you need more than two.
Hive Guards: Nice. They didn't do that much in this game, but they aren't too expensive. So next time I'd take more.
Warriors: I really think they should be kept as cheap as possible because they die pretty quickly when they are shot at. But they are needed to keep the synapse (at least in this list). In close combat they aren't too bad but nothing astonishing. Rending claws are disappointing, re-rollable to-hit rolls are better in my eyes. The death spitters aren't bad too. More a choice of taste I think.
Termagaunts: 15 is a good number for them I think, they soak up some fire and stay "functional". In close combat they suck, so I would give them toxin sacs. Great choice for their points.
Hormagaunts: I regretted the adrenal glands. Admittedly they took out a rhino but they got beaten pretty hard by the ensuing close combat with the disembarked space wolves. Next time with toxin sacs. But I have to say I like the greater speed of the hormagaunts compared to their little brothers. Their special rule ("flink" in German) nearly guarantees a 5-6" running distance which makes them really fast. Ok leaping would have been better, but hey, you can't have everything. I know, the so called internet-wisdom will probably come to the conclusion that termagaunts are the better choice, but I think the 2 points more you spent for the hormies are worth it, for you gain 1 attack and re-rollable 1s on the to hit roll. And to be honest I don't think the fleshborer will be used to often on the termas. So more speed is great for the part of the gaunts who want to get into grips with the enemy or charge the enemy's objective. A mix of both will be fine I think.
Genestealers: Disappointing. Very disappointing. I was able to charge a 10 men squad without any casualties by fire...and they lost close combat after 2 turns. Very sad. They used to be so good but they went the way of the Dodo.... The broodlord is nice with his psychic power where one model in base to base contact cannot strike (the power fist in this case) but he didn't do much too.
Trygon alpha: I think the alpha is not needed. Better save the points or give the basic trygon other upgrades. Otherwise he is nice. Very nice and very destructive. I think he is somewhat a must have now.
Mawloc: Meh. Just meh. To depend on the deviation of his deep striking to use his template weapon is bad (remember that you have to place him like every other unit which deepstrikes, so he has to stay away from enemy units by 1". You cannot deepstrike onto units and use his template!) I always deviated away from units and had to place him instead of the template. And then he simply gets beaten to pulp. I don't think he is worth it. Better take the trygon for a few but well spent points more.
After my first game I was a bit disappointed about the performance of the tyranids in close combat. I lost really every single one. I thought the 'nids are said to be a close combat army. Ok, space wolves are great in hand to hand combat (4 attacks on the charge with re-rolls to hit hurt). But it was my first game, so what do I know of 'nids. Heads up and right into the next game.
With my first experiences made, I designed a new list:
Tyrant
- scything talons
- bonesword and lashwhip
- tactical insight
- 2 guards
2x2 hive guards
3x3 warriors
- see above
16 hormagaunts
- toxin sacs
2x15 termagaunts
- toxin sacs
2 trygons
- adrenalin glands
carnifex
- 2 pairs of scything talons
- adrenaline glands
The idea behind this list was to offer as many as possible juicy targets to the enemy so that he is some kind of overloaded. But each "juicy target" destroyed should not lead to a collapse of the entire list. And I want more close combat than shooting.
Next game was again against the same space puppies. This time my army worked so much better than before. I deployed everything this time except the trygons which would deepstrike.
I won this game with 3 to 1 objectives.
Outstanding were the trygons! They are real beasts, especially when they appear together as few armies are capable to take down 2 TMCs with toughness 6 and 6 wounds in just one round of shooting (and I was able to keep them out of charge range). Ony trygon suffered 4 wounds, the other one none. They wreaked havoc over 3 turns and one survived till the end. 7 attacks on the charge with S7 and re-rolls to hit are pure awesomeness, equals 5 to 6 dead marines. Even Arjak wasn't able to take both of them down.
The toxic gaunts are better too. They put out significantly more damage than without. Take toxin sacs!
The carnifex is ok, but nothing more. But he fills his role in offering another target you cannot ignore on later turns.
Again the hive tyrant is so average that I am not sure about how to use him properly. And I forgot to choose and use his psychic powers...so I can't say anything here.
Overall I was pleased with this list and so I made only light adjustments:
Hive Tyrant again with venom cannon
Warriors all with death spitters
With this list I played against Trotzki's daemons and against Clausewitz who fielded my tau. Against the daemons I managed a draw and I lost against the tau, mainly due to some mistakes I made during deployment and movement and bad luck.
This list performs really well and is quite balanced concerning shooting and close combat and has a nice mix of horde and big bugs.
So this will be quite that what I am going to paint in the next weeks/months. Except that I am going to change the elite section. I ordered 2 more zoanthropes so I am going to try a brood of 3 of them. And three warriors will retain their pair of scything talons as I modelled them this way.
Hopefully I have time at the weekend to take some pics of my bugs I have so far. Currently I am working on the hive tyrant and his guard. Since the last photos I finished 8 stealers, the space hulk broodlord, 8 gaunts and a zoantrope.
That's it for the moment and I can't wait to get my hands on the real codex with hopefully nice fluff and pics.
The first game was against space wolves and my 1750 points list looked something like this (I lost the paper where I wrote it down so just a mere summary):
Hive Tyrant
- venom cannon
- bonesword and lashwhip
- tactical insight
- 2 guards
2 zoanthropes
2 hive guards
3 warriors
- 2 pairs of scything talons
3 warriors
- rending claws
3 warriors
- deathspitters
2x15 termagaunts, no upgrades
20 hormagaunts
- adrenaline glands
10 genestealers with 1 broodlord
trygon alpha
mawloc
We played with 4 objectives, deployment dawn of war. I deployed the tyrant, all termagaunts and the mawloc, the hormagaunts would outflank (tactical insight) as would the genestealers.
So I won't go into detail of the game, I rather tell you how the units performed.
The Tyrant: I am not sure about him. He isn't particularly good but he isn't bad either. He soaks a bit of firepower and can do something with the venom cannon. But he is slow and in this game he didn't reach close combat.
At this point I considered to take him only with close combat weapons and let him run.
Zoanthropes: Funny, are considered a great thread and therefore are taken down in no-time. But their 3++ save is really annoying for the opponent, it took 4 tl-lascannons and a lot of small arms fire to kill them. I think you need more than two.
Hive Guards: Nice. They didn't do that much in this game, but they aren't too expensive. So next time I'd take more.
Warriors: I really think they should be kept as cheap as possible because they die pretty quickly when they are shot at. But they are needed to keep the synapse (at least in this list). In close combat they aren't too bad but nothing astonishing. Rending claws are disappointing, re-rollable to-hit rolls are better in my eyes. The death spitters aren't bad too. More a choice of taste I think.
Termagaunts: 15 is a good number for them I think, they soak up some fire and stay "functional". In close combat they suck, so I would give them toxin sacs. Great choice for their points.
Hormagaunts: I regretted the adrenal glands. Admittedly they took out a rhino but they got beaten pretty hard by the ensuing close combat with the disembarked space wolves. Next time with toxin sacs. But I have to say I like the greater speed of the hormagaunts compared to their little brothers. Their special rule ("flink" in German) nearly guarantees a 5-6" running distance which makes them really fast. Ok leaping would have been better, but hey, you can't have everything. I know, the so called internet-wisdom will probably come to the conclusion that termagaunts are the better choice, but I think the 2 points more you spent for the hormies are worth it, for you gain 1 attack and re-rollable 1s on the to hit roll. And to be honest I don't think the fleshborer will be used to often on the termas. So more speed is great for the part of the gaunts who want to get into grips with the enemy or charge the enemy's objective. A mix of both will be fine I think.
Genestealers: Disappointing. Very disappointing. I was able to charge a 10 men squad without any casualties by fire...and they lost close combat after 2 turns. Very sad. They used to be so good but they went the way of the Dodo.... The broodlord is nice with his psychic power where one model in base to base contact cannot strike (the power fist in this case) but he didn't do much too.
Trygon alpha: I think the alpha is not needed. Better save the points or give the basic trygon other upgrades. Otherwise he is nice. Very nice and very destructive. I think he is somewhat a must have now.
Mawloc: Meh. Just meh. To depend on the deviation of his deep striking to use his template weapon is bad (remember that you have to place him like every other unit which deepstrikes, so he has to stay away from enemy units by 1". You cannot deepstrike onto units and use his template!) I always deviated away from units and had to place him instead of the template. And then he simply gets beaten to pulp. I don't think he is worth it. Better take the trygon for a few but well spent points more.
After my first game I was a bit disappointed about the performance of the tyranids in close combat. I lost really every single one. I thought the 'nids are said to be a close combat army. Ok, space wolves are great in hand to hand combat (4 attacks on the charge with re-rolls to hit hurt). But it was my first game, so what do I know of 'nids. Heads up and right into the next game.
With my first experiences made, I designed a new list:
Tyrant
- scything talons
- bonesword and lashwhip
- tactical insight
- 2 guards
2x2 hive guards
3x3 warriors
- see above
16 hormagaunts
- toxin sacs
2x15 termagaunts
- toxin sacs
2 trygons
- adrenalin glands
carnifex
- 2 pairs of scything talons
- adrenaline glands
The idea behind this list was to offer as many as possible juicy targets to the enemy so that he is some kind of overloaded. But each "juicy target" destroyed should not lead to a collapse of the entire list. And I want more close combat than shooting.
Next game was again against the same space puppies. This time my army worked so much better than before. I deployed everything this time except the trygons which would deepstrike.
I won this game with 3 to 1 objectives.
Outstanding were the trygons! They are real beasts, especially when they appear together as few armies are capable to take down 2 TMCs with toughness 6 and 6 wounds in just one round of shooting (and I was able to keep them out of charge range). Ony trygon suffered 4 wounds, the other one none. They wreaked havoc over 3 turns and one survived till the end. 7 attacks on the charge with S7 and re-rolls to hit are pure awesomeness, equals 5 to 6 dead marines. Even Arjak wasn't able to take both of them down.
The toxic gaunts are better too. They put out significantly more damage than without. Take toxin sacs!
The carnifex is ok, but nothing more. But he fills his role in offering another target you cannot ignore on later turns.
Again the hive tyrant is so average that I am not sure about how to use him properly. And I forgot to choose and use his psychic powers...so I can't say anything here.
Overall I was pleased with this list and so I made only light adjustments:
Hive Tyrant again with venom cannon
Warriors all with death spitters
With this list I played against Trotzki's daemons and against Clausewitz who fielded my tau. Against the daemons I managed a draw and I lost against the tau, mainly due to some mistakes I made during deployment and movement and bad luck.
This list performs really well and is quite balanced concerning shooting and close combat and has a nice mix of horde and big bugs.
So this will be quite that what I am going to paint in the next weeks/months. Except that I am going to change the elite section. I ordered 2 more zoanthropes so I am going to try a brood of 3 of them. And three warriors will retain their pair of scything talons as I modelled them this way.
Hopefully I have time at the weekend to take some pics of my bugs I have so far. Currently I am working on the hive tyrant and his guard. Since the last photos I finished 8 stealers, the space hulk broodlord, 8 gaunts and a zoantrope.
That's it for the moment and I can't wait to get my hands on the real codex with hopefully nice fluff and pics.
January 4, 2010
Test...test...test
Greetings,
I got some more games in with the new Nid codex and wanted to share my experince with you guys.
I played against Trotzkis Eldar at 2000p and against Orkz at 1750p. I wanted to test some units I havent used to far and try certain ideas.
Against the Eldar I used 2 units of 3 Hiveguard´s, they did their job and put some hurt on the Eldar flyers, Falcon´s are still a pain. If you play against mech alot this unit is really worth their points, 6 str8 shots at bf4 for less then a naked Carnifex....gooood.
Against the Eldar I used 2 units of 3 Hiveguard´s, they did their job and put some hurt on the Eldar flyers, Falcon´s are still a pain. If you play against mech alot this unit is really worth their points, 6 str8 shots at bf4 for less then a naked Carnifex....gooood.
I also used 2 Trygons with regeneration, they killed one Serpent sucked up the shooting from the whole Eldar army and then died. Partly because I couldnt make a single saving throw and partly because, Shinning Spear´s kill Trygons! Ok nobody uses them anymore, but they kill Trygons, for real! ;)
Tervigons are still awesome, but keeping the Gaunts in 6" is getting harder if the game gets tougher. I still firmly believe 2 is the magic number. I tried 2 Gaunt units with 15 models each, worked good. Perhaps I scale it down to 10 in the next game and see if it still works.
Carnifex killed some Eldar with his heavy Vennomcannon, killed a Phantomlord and then died to Dire Avengers and Guards in melee, the Hivemind will surely not respawn this one!
In the end i lost with 1:0 objectives, mainly because I got caught in the game and decided not to sit behind a forrest the whole game, was alot of fun though.
Since i know my Ork buddy used the big tanks alot lately, I brought 2 units of 2 Zoantrophes in Capsules. I got played a bit here, the Orkz brought only one big tank and 6 pickups! The Zoantrophes managed to kill 3 pickups, beat a 10man Orkmob in melee and 2 actually survived. But failed to kill the big tank, with 8 friggin str10 ap1 lance hits! :(
Since i know my Ork buddy used the big tanks alot lately, I brought 2 units of 2 Zoantrophes in Capsules. I got played a bit here, the Orkz brought only one big tank and 6 pickups! The Zoantrophes managed to kill 3 pickups, beat a 10man Orkmob in melee and 2 actually survived. But failed to kill the big tank, with 8 friggin str10 ap1 lance hits! :(
For fun and giggles I used 3 Mawloc´s, which turned out to kill the Waaghboss´s ride, the tank and some Orkz. They failed their hit and run check and died to clawz. Mawloc´s dont like str8 energy weapons.
I scaled the Termagaunt´s down to 10 models, still worked. Since it was a Annihilation 15 would have been better, but I was trying to get some points back. Tervigons still rock, nothing to see here.
I wanted to use 2 winged Tyrants, with 2 tl Dev´s and Injector, its so expensive its not even funny anymore, cost more then a frigging Land Raider. While it still works, its just too much points for what it does.
My actual plan was to overload the enemy with ton´s of targets shocking right onto them, it kinda worked. I suffered from some horrible rolls, but I managed to squeeze a draw out in the end, 11:11 killpoints.
So let me recap:
So let me recap:
1. Tervigons are great, nothing new here
2. twinlinked Devourer Flyrants still kinda work, but are way too expensive
3. Orkz with claws/Shinning Spears kill Mawlocs/Trygons
4. Zoans in Capsules kill Tank, 2 units of 2 each should be enough
5. Hiveguards rock against mech and they cheap
2. twinlinked Devourer Flyrants still kinda work, but are way too expensive
3. Orkz with claws/Shinning Spears kill Mawlocs/Trygons
4. Zoans in Capsules kill Tank, 2 units of 2 each should be enough
5. Hiveguards rock against mech and they cheap
Were planning to play some more tomorrow and i really want to test some Alpha Warriors and Harpy´s. But since Managarm is also longing for his first test games, I might be playing some Marines or Tau and see how they deal with the new threats from the Nids.
Cheers!